


Take a Picture

by HomeForImaginaryFriends



Series: Bokuroo Week 2017 [5]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Fluff, M/M, small amount of blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 07:59:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10552852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomeForImaginaryFriends/pseuds/HomeForImaginaryFriends
Summary: Kuroo was just trying to take pictures of a small town when he was mugged.  Bokuto was just working a regular night shift at the bar when Kuroo stumbled in and he wants to make things better for him.





	

Bokuto leant his arms on the bar, looking down at the scarred wood that was stained and polished to an inch of its life.  The occupants of the bar was the usual crowd, the younger Ukai in the corner with his friends steadily getting more intoxicated as the night wore on.  The Ukai family ran the only ramen place in town, which closed at 10 along with the majority of the small town.  The night workers tended to find their way to this bar, filling up the biggest booth in the corner and eating the rather good bar food.  Takeda, the young primary school teacher who had gotten a flat outside Ukai’s ramen shop years ago on the way to a job interview in a much larger town, sat next to Ukai, steadily blushing more as the oblivious blonde haired man leaned closer into his space.

 

Bokuto grinned, propping his chin in his palm as he looked down the bar at another nightly ritual.  Matsukawa Issei, the owner of the bar, was showing his husband how to make overly complicated drinks that no in the history of this bar has ever ordered.  Daichi was pretending to be annoyed, watching Issei’s flourishing movements and his big eyebrows wiggle at him suggestively as he poured the neon blue drink into the clear cup.

 

“I don’t even want to know how you got it that color.”  Daichi sat on the other side of the bar from husband of three months now, his mock exasperation could not hide the fondness and love clearly written all over his freckled face.

 

“Dai-chi, if you had been watching you would know, now you have to drink it.”  Matsukawa slid the drink in front of Daichi, leaning his arms on the bar and letting his usually impassive features slip into a grin.

 

“I’m not going to drink something that’s glowing.”  Daichi sounded stern but he was reaching up, brushing his fingers through Issei’s dark errant curls, pushing them out of his face.  “You need a haircut.”

 

“It’s not glowing.”  Matsukawa protested, but it was weak since he was leaning into Daichi’s hand, heavily lid eyes almost closing completely.

 

“It’s neon.”  Daichi pressed a soft kiss to his husbands nose.  Bokuto hadn’t thought they could get more adorable than than had been when first dating, but apparently he was severely wrong.  They fought like a normal couple, the bar really was a money pit even though Matsukawa and Bokuto were the only ones who worked there, and Matsukawa’s laid back nature greatly contrasted Daichi’s but the love between them was clear to anyone.

 

Bokuto pushed himself up, stretching and making his way to the kitchen to try out the next recipe in his book.  It was over a thousand recipes from around the world, he was working on the art of making the perfect burger.  He couldn’t seem to get the seasoning just right, though the fries he made were always a hit.  Matsukawa never minded Bokuto experimenting in the bars kitchen, as long as he got a taste of the end product.  Then again Matsukawa wasn’t really ever bothered by much of anything.

 

Bokuto was putting everything onto plates, he had made mini burgers for those in the bar, while making full sized ones for himself, Matsukawa, and Daichi when he heard Daichi’s calm demand from the bar telling Bokuto to grab the first aid kit.  Bokuto dug the metal box out from beneath the counter before walking out from the kitchen, wondering who had hurt themselves now.

 

Bokuto was not prepared for the tall, lanky man sitting at the bar, holding bloodied tissues to his nose.  His hair was a spill of inky blackness that was an odd combination of hanging directly in his face and sticking straight up.  He was dark skinned like Daichi, though minus the freckles.  His chin had clearly met some concrete judging from the road rash and little bits of debri stuck in the bloodied skin.

 

“Bo?”  Daichi snapped Bokuto out of his inner thoughts and he brought the box over to Daichi, who had more than his fair share of patching people up.  “You said there was three of them?”  Daichi asked as Matsukawa put a clear glass of water down in front of the stranger, before putting a clean bowl of water near Daichi so the shorter man could clean out the wounds.

 

“Yeah, couldn’t have been older than 16.”  The guy sighed, smirking a little self deprecatingly as he lowered the bloodied tissues so Daichi could work easier.  “I didn’t even see it coming.  Should I call the police?”

 

“No need,” Matsukawa grinned lazily as he leaned against the counter, pressing into Daichi’s space as the other man carefully touched around the tall mans nose.  Daichi used a wet wipe to clean off his slightly bloodied hands before tugging out his badge before using the chain around it to hang it from his neck.

 

“Lucky me.”  The guy took a deep drink of the water before Daichi started to clean up the scraps on his hands.

 

“What’s your name?”  Bokuto asked, maybe a little too enthusiastically as he realized this poor, very attractive man, had been mugged.

 

“Kuroo, Kuroo Tetsurou.”  Kuroo winced but smirked over at Bokuto, a little cunning twist of his lips.  “Thanks for uh- patching me up.”  Kuroo flexed his long fingers.

 

“Your nose isn’t broken but you should put some ice on it before it starts swelling too bad.”  Daichi’s own nose was permanently crooked from being broken a dozen or so times, he knew all about broken noses.  “I’ll go track down your things.”  Daichi stood up and Matsukawa followed him down to the end of the bar.

 

“Is he going to be okay?  They were teenagers but there was three- oh wow.”  Kuroo stopped as he looked over where Daichi and Matsukawa were talking, the taller man flirting blatantly.  Bokuto understood Kuroo’s sudden stop, Daichi looked completely wholesome up close but from far away, in faded jeans and a tight black shirt, it was quite obvious how much muscle he had.

 

“He’ll be fine.”  Bokuto assured Kuroo with a laugh, earning those hazel eyes to look over him.  “Plus he has a partner.”  Daichi and Iwaizumi pretty much made up their entire police force but really, that’s all the town needed.  No one wanted to get on either of their bad sides.  “Oh!  Wait there.”  Bokuto hurried back to the kitchen, grabbing the plates of food before walking back out and settling a plate with a big burger and overflowing with fries down in front of Kuroo.

 

“I can’t really afford this.”  But Kuroo’s eyes didn’t stray from the food.

 

“Don’t worry, it’s on me or on the house, I don’t know but you don’t have to pay for it.”  Bokuto took the other plates, full of mini burgers and fries, over to the booth where he was met with a wave of happy drunk cheering.  By the time Bokuto made it back over to Kuroo he was already half way through his burger and Matsukawa had pulled out the last two plates from the  kitchen, eating his own burger.

 

“Is it good?”  Bokuto asked hopefully as he ate a couple fries off his own full plate.

 

“Yeah- um- sorry, I don’t know why I’m so hungry.”  Kuroo apologized as he swallowed down the food in his mouth.

 

“Getting mugged does leave one feeling ravished.”  Matsukawa deadpanned from down the bar.

 

“Does that happen a lot?”  Kuroo asked worriedly.

 

“No, at least you’re the first I’ve heard of it.”  Bokuto answered quickly to reassure him before taking note of the expensive looking camera that Kuroo was clutching to his chest.  It was a bit dirty and the corner was scuffed but Kuroo was holding it like a child.  “You take pictures?”

 

“Oh?  Oh yes, I do, it was the only thing I managed to save.  I mean I guess I should have kept tighter tabs on my bag full of my wallet and everything but-” Kuroo shrugged, not the least bit embarrassed.  “It was hanging around my neck, so when they shoved me I fell forward and they took off with my bag.  It hit the ground hard but it still works.”  He looked massively relieved as he polished off the rest of his food.  Bokuto wasn’t in the habit of sharing his food, he had a rather large appetite, but he slid the rest of his fries onto Kuroo’s plate as he finished the rest of his own burger.  Kuroo flashed him a thankful smile, it was a little sharp and mocking but Bokuto found himself liking it quite a bit.

 

“So you actually take photos for a living?”  Bokuto asked as he refilled Kuroo’s cup of water.

 

“Yeah, I uh- saw a bunch of fireflies in a field of wild flowers, wandered off and completely missed my bus and ended up getting very lost.”  Kuroo was grinning through the whole explanation, as if that happened quite often to him.  “I work for a travel site, we’re doing small towns now and I’ve kind of just been wandering around, taking buses when I see them, stopping wherever I want.”  Kuroo shrugged, placing his camera carefully on the bar before he began to fiddle with it.  Long tanned fingers making easy, practiced movements before he took a picture of the glasses behind the bar, checking the viewfinder and sighing in relief at what he saw there.

 

“You want to see something cool?”  Bokuto asked, ignoring Matsukawa snickering further down the bar.

 

“Yeah.”  Kuroo answered easily, which Bokuto liked.  Bokuto felt bad for Kuroo, who had clearly not been given the best first impression of their small town, but Bokuto was a constant optimistic, he knew he could change that around.

 

“Mattsun?”  Bokuto asked, since technically he was scheduled to work for a couple hours.

 

“Go on, don’t forget the-” Matsukawa glanced purposely at Kuroo.  “- _stuff_.”  Bokuto laughed.  Most people knew Matsukawa in this town, knew he was a bit of a prankster, that he liked messing with with people so he always got a little carried away when new people showed up.  Bokuto did grab a baggie from his bag tucked under the bar, shoving it into his pocket as he pulled on a beanie.  The summer nights were beginning to get colder and Bokuto’s ears always were the first thing to freeze.

 

“Is this where you take me out to an abandoned lot, drug me, and steal my organs?”  Kuroo asked as he easily kept pace with Bokuto’s usual looping walk.  Bokuto grinned over at him, noticing they were roughly the same size, maybe Kuroo was a bit taller though he walked slightly slumped over.

 

“And yet you’re still following me.”  Bokuto teased easily.

 

“I’m intrigued.”  Kuroo said with a shrug.  Where Bokuto wanted to take him wasn’t far but Bokuto wasn’t surprised when Kuroo started questioning him about the people he had met so far.  “Will that officer really be alright?”

 

“His muscles aren’t just for show, Daichi used to be a cage fighter and a damn good one, he’s got a bunch of titles and won a ton of championships.”  Bokuto grinned at the surprised look on Kuroo’s face.  “Most people get that look when they hear about it too.”  Bokuto pulled out his phone, typing in Sawamura Daichi before showing Kuroo the first picture that popped up, which was Daichi holding up a black and gold belt, blood dripping down his face and covered in sweat.

 

“Holy shit.”  Kuroo let out a surprised laugh.  “But he looks so- I mean- why did he stop fighting?”

 

“He travelled a lot, he was in New York when he got news his dad had gotten sick but he didn’t think it was serious until, you know, it got serious.  He’s fine!  Perfectly fine now, he throws a BBQ every Thursday and the entire town shuts down to go to it.”  Bokuto was excited for the BBQ the next day.  “He said he was so focused on his own goals and future that he lost track of everything else, when he heard his dad was in the hospital he flew back immediately and then started to realize how out of touch he was with everyone, not only just his own family but all his friends too.  So he moved back, started teaching self defense down at the center, coaches the high school judo club, and then became our chief of police.”  Kuroo was watching Bokuto with interest, hazel eyes clear even in the dark night.

 

“Wow, now I almost feel bad for those kids.”  Kuroo said softly, causing Bokuto to laugh.  Those kids were going to wish they had stayed home tonight.  “So him and eyebrows at the bar-?”  Bokuto laughed again.  Matsukawa’s eyebrows were ridiculously fluffy.

 

“Married, got married a couple months ago actually.”  Bokuto grinned, happy for them.  It had been a backyard wedding the entire town had been invited, they had worn slacks with crisp white button downs and vests over top.  Daichi had worn an orange tie while Matsukawa had worn a teal bowtie, they had looked handsome and deliriously happy.  “Matsukawa has a pretty interesting backstory too.”

 

“Do tell.”  Kuroo smirked over at him, looking more and more relaxed despite his swollen nose and busted chin.

 

“Matsukawa’s family has always gone into law, they even have their own law firm and Matsukawa was a very high profile, expensive as shit divorce attorney.”  They were almost to their destination.  “A couple years ago he just up and quits, moves out here and started investing in the town.  That bar had been abandoned for decades, Matsukawa rebuilt it.  He converted an old abandoned strip mall into a hotel, he made a park and a public garden.  The primary school almost had to shut down, which meant all the kids in town would have to be shipped to the next down over with the secondary and high school kids, but Matsukawa saved that too.”

 

“Because of Sawamura?”  Kuroo guessed but Bokuto shook his head, though it was a logical assumption.

 

“Daichi came home after Matsukawa got here.”  Bokuto pulled apart a wire link fence, holding it open for Kuroo who shot him a curious look but ducked down to pass by it, Bokuto followed by and put the fence back into place.  “Apparently Matsukawa hated his job from day one.  It’s a bunch of rich people trying to hurt each other, not caring who gets caught in the crossfire, which ends up being their kids a lot of the time.  His parents tracked him down about two years ago, demanded he come back but by then he had met Daichi and he definitely wasn’t leaving after that.”  Kuroo looked like he was about to ask more questions but Bokuto pulled the baggie out of his pocket and gave the bedheaded man a manic grin.

 

“Do I want to know?”  Kuroo asked, only slightly wary which was a good sign.  Something large and on all fours rounded the corner, trotting over to them.  “Holy shit, holy shit man, is that dog on steroids?”  Bokuto laughed as he opened the baggie, shoving something into Kuroo’s hand before kneeling down and presenting his own favor to the, admittedly rather large, dog.

 

“This is Daisy and she demands treats otherwise she’ll go get her dad.”  The large dog took the bone-shaped treat out of Bokuto’s hand delicately, like the little lady she was, before giving Kuroo a pointed look.  “Give it to her.”

 

“Her name is Daisy, of course it is, hey girl, here’s your tribute, please don’t eat me I’ve had a bad night and it just recently got better.”  Kuroo cooed at the dog, slightly nervous as he held out the treat at arms length.  Daisy took the treat just as gently as she had taken it from Bokuto, giving the short nub of her tail a nice wiggle before she trotted off the way she came from.  “Bo, bro, a little warning next time.”

 

“Sorry,” Bokuto obviously wasn’t all that sorry as he started to walk through the carefully kept maze.

 

“Will there be more dogs?”  Kuroo asked cautiously.

 

“Probably but their own keeps track of them, Daisy is the only one trusted enough to wander where she pleases.”  Bokuto hummed, turning a corner and effectively cutting off Kuroo’s next barrage of questions as they came upon a full size carousel.  It shined even in the dead of night, meticulously well kept.

 

“What- what kind of town have I come into?”  Kuroo asked, carefully stepping up onto the carousel, fingers running over the long neck of a black horse throwing its head back.  “Is it okay for us to be here?”

 

“Yeah, we gave Daisy her treats.”  Bokuto stepped up onto the carousel himself, walking to the main compartment and pulling open a small mirror that revealed the control panel.  “Please take a seat.”  Bokuto grinned as he tossed on the lights, which were a little blinding but only for a minute.

 

“Those kids knocked me unconscious, didn’t they?  I’m laying in the road, unconscious right now.”  Kuroo hopped up and sat sideways on a white unicorn, staring over at Bokuto in wonder and amusement, plus a dash of disbelief.

 

“Might as well enjoy it then.”  Bokuto pressed the series of keys that would start up the ride, keeping it slow, the music soft in the night air.

 

“You are something else.”  Kuroo brought his camera up to his eye, snapping pictures as the unicorn lazily lifted him up and down.  Bokuto laughed, letting Kuroo grow used to it before making his way off the carousel, jumping off the edge with practiced ease.  Kuroo was too busy leaning back on the unicorn, tilting his camera to left just a little and snapping another picture to realize Bokuto had walked away, which was good because he wanted to surprise the black haired man just one more time.

 

Bokuto started running from one sign to another.  The carousel was such a statement piece that most people forgot to look to see what was surrounding it.  Bokuto started to turn on the lights, humming along with the soft music of the carousel.

 

“Holy shit Bo!”  Kuroo was laughing, body turned to face outwards as he leaned forward, one hand gripping the pole running through the unicorn and the other holding his camera tucked closely to his chest.

 

The carousel was surrounded by huge, now glowing, neon signs.  Some were written in kanji, some in English or Hebrew, some flashed dancing girls or moving pomperganents.  They lit up the night and Bokuto new from experience the best view was right from the carousel.

 

Bokuto hopped back on, right next to Kuroo who was grinning before holding up his camera to snap a couple more pictures.

 

“What is all this?”  Kuroo asked with amusement, camera turning on Bokuto who was probably watching Kuroo with an all too sappy look.  “Sorry sorry, I should have asked if I could- but the lighting is really great and you- you have a nice face.”

 

“Thanks?”  Bokuto laughed, felt his cheeks heat up.  He had always thought he looked a bit odd, tall and a little too broad with wide features and heavily hooded eyes.  “It’s our towns version of a junkyard.”

 

“Who’s out there?”  A booming voice called out, threatening and dark and accompanied by a couple excited barks.  Bokuto moved to turn off the carousel, stepping down as a dark figure turned the corner, surrounded by dogs.

 

“Hey hey hey Kyoutani!”  Bokuto called out as the other man stopped and scowled.  The scowl didn’t mean much, the only person who could really remove it completely was Kyoutani’s boyfriend.  “Sorry, did we wake you up?”  It was only 10 but Kyoutani was usually up early, he was the towns vet and worked on all animals small or big.

 

“No, Iwaizumi left a little ago.”  Kyoutani’s sharp eyes looked over at Kuroo as the lanky man stepped won from the ride on slightly unsteady feet.

 

“This is Kuroo Tetsurou, Kuroo this is Kyoutani Kentarou.”  Daisy walked over, pressing her large head into Kuroo’s thigh and nearly knocking him over.  Kyoutani watched the scene with narrowed eyes, only relaxing when Kuroo reached down to give Daisy a scratch behind her ears.  “Kuroo got mugged earlier so I was trying to cheer him up.”  Kyoutani scowled a little less, almost non existent brows pressing together in a look that took Bokuto a long time to realize was concern.

 

“Hey why are all the lights- oh hey Bokuto.”  Iwaizumi walked up behind Kyoutani, fingers lightly pressing against Kyoutani’s back, causing the blonde man to relax just slightly as the dogs bounced excitedly around Iwaizumi.  “Is that Kuroo?  Sorry about what happened, we found all your things and left them at the hotel.”

 

“That was fast.”  Kuroo said in surprise as he stepped up to Bokuto’s side.

 

“We’re a small town, if you want to press charges give us a call in the morning, Daichi left his card with your things.”  Iwaizumi then glanced down at the dogs.  “Kentarou, why are their six dogs?”

 

“He just wandered in.”  Kyoutani rubbed the scruff of a dark chocolate lab who was gray around the muzzle.

 

“Ken-” Iwaizumi was clearly trying not to smile but was quickly losing the battle.  “You know who’s dog that is.”

 

“If they can’t keep an eye on him then they don’t deserve to have a dog.”  Kyoutani snapped but his ears were bright red as Iwaizumi stepped forward, rubbing the muzzle of the dog before looking over at Kyoutani.  “Fine! I’ll go call them.  Don’t forget to turn off the fucking lights, and next time call before you just come into someone’s private property!”  Kyoutani stormed off, the dogs racing off in his wake.

 

“Night Kyoutani!”  Bokuto waved though the younger man didn’t turn to look.  Bokuto turned his grin on Iwaizumi, whose property it actually belonged to.

 

“You should head home, are you coming to the BBQ tomorrow?”  Iwaizumi asked, clicking his tongue to get the attention of Daisy who left Kuroo’s side to go push her big head into Iwaizumi’s thigh, the man didn’t even nudge an inch.  Bokuto nodded enthusiastically.  “You should bring your friend, if he’s planning to stick around.”  Iwaizumi waved before walking back towards to the house.

 

“Thank you!”  Kuroo called out quickly.

 

“Come on, Kyoutani’s always kind of mad but we don’t want to anger Iwaizumi.”  Bokuto turned off the lights quickly, distantly noting that Kuroo was still taking pictures and wondering if he would be the center of any of them.  Bokuto wondered how many folders on Kuroo’s computer or hard drive were there of strangers in strange towns, if Bokuto had made any sort of impact.

 

“So those two?”  Kuroo asked as he followed Bokuto towards the hotel.

 

“Yeah, Kyoutani’s basically been in love with Iwaizumi since infancy.”  Iwaizumi was a couple years older.  Kyoutani had confessed when he was in high school, but Iwaizumi had gently turned him down considering he had already graduated and Kyoutani had a bright future ahead of him as a vet.  Everyone had been surprised when four years ago Kyoutani had shown up in town, set up his own veterinary clinic and continued to pursue Iwaizumi.

 

“Committed.”  Kuroo sounded impressed.

 

“Iwaizumi’s best friend calls Kyoutani mad dog,” Oikawa Tooru had nicknames for everyone, Bokuto had let the tall model ugly cry on his shoulder during Matsukawa and Daichi’s wedding.  “People think it’s because he’s got kind of a problem with anger, he’s pretty good with it now but when he was a kid he got into a bunch of fights.  But the name is because he doesn’t let anything go once he gets ahold of it.  Iwaizumi hadn’t turned Kyoutani down because he didn’t feel the same but because the difference between 15 and 19 is a lot bigger than 26 and 30.”  They were happy.  Kyoutani put up with Iwaizumi hoarding strange relics like neon signs from around the world and old carousels and Iwaizumi let Kyoutani keep all the stray dogs, cats, pigs, and even two goats he found.

 

“So about that BBQ,” Kuroo said slowly as the hotel came into view.

 

“Oh yeah, you don’t have to of course, you kind of had a shitty first impression-”

 

“It got better from there.”  Kuroo smirked, head tilted, fingers playing with his camera.

 

“Ah- good.  That’s, yeah that’s good.”  Bokuto grinned, a little goofily but he couldn’t really help that.  “I’m glad.  But if you are planning to stick around, there’s a couple more places I could show you and Daichi’s dad does make an absurd amount of food.”  The old Sawamura house looks like something out of an old fairytale too, but Bokuto wanted that to be a surprise for Kuroo who saw the beauty in a field full of fireflies and old neon signs.

 

“That sounds great.”  Kuroo grinned, stopping as they reached the door that held the main desk of the strip mall converted into a hotel.  “Can I-” Kuroo was holding his camera so Bokuto assumed he wanted a picture.  Bokuto nodded, smiling happily until Kuroo was taking a step closer and pressing a quick kiss to Bokuto’s still smiling mouth.  It was warm and soft, Bokuto stared in surprise before letting out a loud laugh.

 

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow!  Shit sorry, that was loud, oh god I’m still screaming-” Bokuto stepped back as Kuroo cackled, a loud laugh that filled the area and made Bokuto feel warm.  “I’ll be here, tomorrow, good day sir- I have no idea why I said that, goodbye, I mean goodnight, I’ll see you- oh god.”  Bokuto ducked his head and forced himself to walk away like a normal person, Kuroo’s happy sounding laugh a soft warmth against his back.


End file.
